Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
This film tells the story of three defeats: Berlusconi’s political and human defeat in his “twilight”, the one of Ciccio Mirra, Berlusconi’s unconditional supporter, deeply rooted in an ancient culture that dies hard, and the director’s artistic defeat in an Italy that recognised itself in this “Berlusconian culture” for a long time, and probably still does.
Belluscone is a fascinatingly oblique documentary that subverts the conventional political portrait by weaving together Berlusconi's twilight, a fervent Sicilian supporter's tragicomic devotion, and the director's own self-reflexive failure to make the film he intended. Its novelty lies in this triple-defeat structure and its willingness to implicate the filmmaker himself in the cultural malaise it documents — a genuinely singular conception. The cinematography is functional rather than distinguished, and the 'acting' dimension (primarily subjects performing themselves) is uneven, with Mirra colorful but others flat. The ending, fittingly inconclusive, mirrors the film's thesis about an Italy that never quite reckons with its own Berlusconism, though it may frustrate viewers seeking resolution.